I become increasingly entertained with the concept of Johnny Sutton’s inevitable demise by his own hand. While I think one might be a tad optimistic in believing Sutton and his cabal of fellows and subordinates in the Western District of Texas, where he and they have been doing nothing but regurgitating, practically ad infinitum, the same, tired talking-points and “myths” (many proven lies, as if none were aware) concerning the Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean border shooting of illegal alien drug smuggler, Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, could garner any actual jail time resulting from their blatantly hostile and dishonest prosecution of the two former border agents.

I do hold credence in the concept of disbarment hearings for Sutton and company with the preferable outcome actually resulting in banishment from the legal profession altogether. If one has no respect for his or her chosen profession, one should not be engaged in practicing that profession. If that profession involves the professional, through various corrupt and deceptive practices, remanding individuals in a federal penitentiary for 11 and 12 years, then that person should be forcibly removed from that profession. Of course, I would not be sad to see Sutton face more severe punishment.

Now comes word from the private investigator hired by Ramos to locate the illegal drug smuggler, Davila. Apparently Sutton and his crack team of government lawyers and investigators claim they could not locate Davila after the border shooting incident. You might say to yourself, “But they’re the government, they’re super efficient with this sort of thing. If they couldn’t find him, then no one could.” Don’t say that. Okay? It only took one private investigator, Freddie Bonilla, a relatively brief amount of time to ferret out the drug smuggling criminal.

If Sutton is not an efficient tool of the United States government, then he’s either a shill for George W. Bush and the president’s SPP plans, or he’s just a tool. Actually, I’d say Sutton is both.

Marijuana found in the back of the van being used by Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila

A private investigator who was hired by former U.S. Border Patrol agent Ignacio Ramos during his trial on allegations he fired at a fleeing drug smuggler says he doesn’t think prosecutors made any significant effort to find the smuggler, later identified as Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila.

Freddie Bonilla told WND that his investigation of the Feb. 17, 2005, incident was straight-forward, and led him quickly to Aldrete-Davila’s identity, and he believes the federal government should have been able to do the same thing.

Bonilla, who was a homicide investigator with the El Paso Police Department and later the chief of detectives for the El Paso Sheriff’s Department, also has served for several decades as a private investigator.

In preparing for the defense of Ramos, who along with Jose Compean was accused of shooting at Aldrete-Davila when Aldrete-Davila’s van – loaded with drugs – was trapped by federal officers and he fled on foot back to Mexico, Bonilla said he started by looking at the van that Aldrete-Davila abandoned at the scene.

“Why didn’t the Drug Enforcement Administration track down the van to find out who the owner was?” Bonilla asked WND. “That van was physical evidence of the crime that was never seriously investigated. Yet, prosecutor [U.S. Attorney] Johnny Sutton has been all over the national media saying there was no physical evidence he could have used to prosecute Aldrete-Davila. What about the van?”

The two former federal agents now are serving prison terms of 11 and 12 years on their convictions for that incident, even though Aldrete-Davila never was charged with the drug case – or a subsequent drug smuggling incident – and in fact was given immunity to testify against the federal border agents.

At the same time, WND reported that the van was towed to the El Paso sheriff’s compound where it sat for approximately one month before the U.S. Border Patrol Evidence Team entered the compound, dusted the vehicle, and found 11 fingerprints, only three of which were duplicates.

But there’s no indication the DEA or Department of Homeland Security investigators ever examined the vehicle or the fingerprints for evidence that might have led to Aldrete-Davila.

Bonilla said he quickly tracked the vehicle to Jesus Beltran, an El Paso self-employed construction worker who buys and sells used cars to supplement his income. Then Beltran examined photos of the van provided by Bonilla, as well as wrecking company towing records, and identified it as one he purchased in 2004 from an El Paso wrecking lot.

He registered it under his name and kept it for five months, then sold it to a friend in Juarez, Mexico, for $1,300. The Texas plates on the car at the time of the Feb. 17, 2005, drug incident were registered to Beltran.

“If I could find the car and how it got down to Mexico,” Bonilla said, “then why couldn’t the DEA or the DHS have tracked down the car in the attempt to find out who the drug smuggler was? Right there I found out far more than anybody ever investigated for the Border Patrol.”

Even after Davila came forth on March 4, 2005, with the Mexican Consulate demanding the prosecution of the Border Patrol agents who shot him, Bonilla felt DEA and DHS should have investigated the van.

“If you tracked down Beltran’s friend in Juarez,” Bonilla argued to WND, “dedicated law enforcement in the U.S. might have uncovered the drug smuggling ring that hired Davila to run that load across the border.”

Bonilla provided WND with photos of the drug van at the levee, where Davila ran the two front wheels over the edge before he abandoned the vehicle in the attempt to escape on foot. Bonilla also provided photos of the 743 pounds of marijuana discovered in the van at the scene of the incident.

Another issue Bonilla raised was the cell phone found in the van after Aldrete-Davila fled. “There were a total of 9 Border Patrol officers on the scene Feb. 17, 2005, plus two supervisors. Why is it that the DEA or DHS never investigated the cell phone Davila left behind? That cell phone should have had valuable numbers in the memory that could have led to Davila or the drug syndicate he worked for.”

The telephone became a subject of questioning at the trial for Ramos and Compean, when Ramos defense attorney Mary Stillinger asked the smuggler about it, and he said he got it from drug dealers in Mexico who hired him to walk across the border, find the marijuana-loaded van with a key in the ignition and drive it away.

But there was a discrepancy between his testimony and the evidence observed by investigators:

Stillinger: The phone that was in the van, was that your telephone, or was that a telephone that was given to you for the purpose of helping you to do this transaction? Aldrete-Davila: Yeah, they gave it to me when I got on the van. When they sent me there, they gave it to me. I didn’t have a telephone.

Stillinger: Okay. And they gave you the phone charger with it?

Aldrete-Davila: No, just the telephone.

Stillinger: Okay. So the phone charger – there was a phone charger in the van, wasn’t there?

Aldrete-Davila: I don’t know. They just gave me the telephone. I don’t know if there was a charger or not.

Aldrete-Davila further testified that the phone was Nextel and that the drug users used the radio feature, not the telephone, to communicate. He also testified that he did not plug the phone into a charger.

“The whole thing with the cell phone was ridiculous,” Bonilla told WND. “That cell phone should have been the first thing DEA or DHS should have been investigated to find Davila or his drug smuggling partners.”

“Besides, Davila was lying about everything,” Bonilla told WND. “He never explained how that white van on the other side of the Rio Grande knew to be there waiting for him when he ran away. Did he call his buddies when he was evading the Border Patrol hot pursuit? How come DEA or DHS didn’t look into whether Davila called anybody when he was running away?”

He also offered an explanation for why Compean and Border Patrol Agent Arturo Vasquez picked up the spent shell casings expended when Compean and Ramos fired at the fleeing smuggler.

“I was a firearms trainer in the Marine Corps,” Bonilla said, “and from the first day at the firing range through 26 years in law enforcement, it was hammered into my head that the first command after you finish shooting is to load and holster your weapon, and the second command is always, to pick up your brass or shell casings.”

He also suggested that Border Patrol supervisor Jonathan Richards, who was also on the scene in 2005, should have known there had been trouble. “Richards was the main supervisor at the scene and he was made aware there had been shooting, despite what he testified at trial,” Bonilla insisted. “Richards saw Agent Compean covered with dirt and bleeding from the face. But he convinced Compean that if Compean reported the matter, that it would require a lot of paper work, and then having to go to the F.B.I.”

That would corroborate an earlier report when WND examined the transcript of a May 15, 2005 job suspension hearing Compean had with El Paso Border Patrol Sector Chief Louis Barker, in which Compean said Richards discouraged him from filing written reports after the incident with Davila.

Besides the Ramos-Compean case, there also has been an uproar over the conviction of Deputy Sheriff Gilmer Hernandez, who fired his weapon at a van loaded with illegal aliens he thought were trying to run him down. He was convicted for that and he’s scheduled for sentencing later this month.

Yet another that already has been resolved, at the expense of a former federal agent, involves David Sipe, who was accused of improperly hitting a coyote [someone who smuggles illegal aliens into the U.S.] while he was resisting arrest with a flashlight. He was convicted and sent to prison before an appellate court overturned his conviction, and he was acquitted during a re-trial in January.

However, Sipe lost both his career and marriage because of the charges against him.

The below news article by Daily Bulletin staff writer, Sara A. Carter confirms what most of us have suspected for a very long time: Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila did smuggle an additional load of drugs into the country after U.S. Attorney, Johnny Sutton and his office had already given Davila immunity from prosecution provided he would testify against former border patrol agents, and current political prisoners, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. This despite the fact Sutton himself has repeatedly denied allegations Davila had ever been known to sneak another van load of drugs into the country after he was granted immunity and after Sutton’s office, in the name of U.S. citizens everywhere (natural born and legal immigrant) had given Davila an immigration card that freely allowed the illegal alien drug smuggler unfettered access between Mexico and the United States.

From the article…

Sutton said in a Jan. 17 “Myths vs. Reality” press release that “Aldrete has not been subsequently arrested for drug smuggling. Our office is in the business of prosecuting drug traffickers and alien smugglers … If we had a provable case against Aldrete, we would prosecute him.”

Sutton’s assertion that Aldrete-Davila has not been arrested is accurate. However, an Oct. 25, 2005, DEA report shows that DEA investigators believed they had sufficient evidence to indict Aldrete-Davila, but their requests to do so were denied by prosecutors.

Why? Obviously, so Sutton, Kanof, et. al. could proceed with their mendacious litigation against two border patrol agents who are spending 11 and 12 years in jail for simply doing their jobs. In their bloodlust, the prosecution was more concerned with destroying two American citizens than prosecuting a known drug smuggler from the Mexican drug cartels; a drug smuggler who was painted by Sutton’s office as a poor, pathetic schmuck who simply was trying to sell a few drugs in order to help his ailing mother in Mexico.

This offers more hope for Ramos and Compean. Hope? Hope is indicative of maybe/possibly reasoning. This offers more concrete evidence that Ramos and Compean will be exonerated and released sooner rather than later. If the information about Davila was with held from the defense, which is appears to have been, then Sutton will be looking at even more legal trouble for himself and his staff, including Debra Kanof.

Did Ramos and Compean make mistakes? Of course. Do they deserve the sentences that were handed down to them–11 and 12 years? Of course not, and anyone who does believe the two former agents received an appropriate judgment can only be in favor of the U.S. becoming a totalitarian police state with President Bush as its despot. Hyperbole? Possibly.

So, while Sutton continues to lie by parsing his verbiage, dodging facts while disseminating half-truths in order to avoid the inevitable investigation that will hopefully sweep through him and his office, Ramos and Compean continue to languish in prison, products of a west Texas judicial system in arrears and sorely in need of a good enema.

The Mexican national shot by two Border Patrol agents in a drug-related incident in February 2005 brought a second van load of drugs into the U.S. while he waited to testify against the agents, according to Drug Enforcement Administration reports obtained by the Daily Bulletin.

Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila – who was given immunity by U.S. prosecutors in exchange for testifying against former agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean – is the focus of a November 2005 DEA report that identifies him as the person responsible for stashing more than 750 pounds of marijuana in a van parked at a house in Clint, Texas, in October of that year.

“(A witness) stated that Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila was the individual that dropped off the 1990 Chevy Astro van,” according to the DEA document. “This van contained approximately 6 bundles of marijuana.”

DEA interviews with the Clint house’s owner, Cipriano Ortiz-Hernandez, led to Ortiz-Hernandez’s brother, Jose Ortiz, who told DEA agents that Aldrete-Davila had moved the narcotics from Juarez to El Paso, adding that the van Aldrete-Davila was driving needed work, so he referred him to his mechanic brother, Cipriano.”Jose Ortiz thought for a minute, and then stated that we should know Davila’s identity because he is the person who was shot by Border Patrol agents six months ago,” the report states.

Cipriano Ortiz-Hernandez also identified Aldrete-Davila as the van’s driver after seeing a photo array, according to the DEA documents.

Aldrete-Davila was shot in the buttocks after fleeing a van filled with marijuana and running away from Border Patrol agents in a February 2005 incident near Fabens, Texas, about seven miles from Clint.

Ramos and Compean are now serving 11 and 12 years, respectively, in federal prison after being convicted in March 2006 of assault with a deadly weapon, attempting to cover up their actions, and violating Aldrete-Davila’s civil rights.

Both men testified that they thought Aldrete had a gun in his hand while they were chasing him, and feared for their lives when they fired on him.

Aldrete-Davila was given immunity to testify against the agents, along with a special border crossing pass and free medical treatment at a U.S. Army medical center.

Western District of Texas U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, whose office prosecuted Ramos and Compean, has denied numerous times that Aldrete-Davila brought a second load of narcotics into the United States after being granted immunity.

Sutton said in a Jan. 17 “Myths vs. Reality” press release that “Aldrete has not been subsequently arrested for drug smuggling. Our office is in the business of prosecuting drug traffickers and alien smugglers … If we had a provable case against Aldrete, we would prosecute him.”

Sutton’s assertion that Aldrete-Davila has not been arrested is accurate. However, an Oct. 25, 2005, DEA report shows that DEA investigators believed they had sufficient evidence to indict Aldrete-Davila, but their requests to do so were denied by prosecutors.

According to a high-level source close to the investigation, Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Gregory was notified in October 2005 that Aldrete-Davila was being investigated by the DEA and that the agency had new evidence against him.

Gregory dismissed the warning, the source said.

Shana Jones, special assistant to Sutton, said she could not comment on Gregory’s meeting with the DEA, or on the DEA documents.

“We have posted the transcript of the (agents’) trial,” Jones said. “We are not going to comment about matters that are under seal or are ongoing investigations.”

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., received a phone call this morning from the Justice Department urging him not to release Drug Enforcement Agency investigative reports that confirm a previous WND story presenting evidence the drug smuggler given immunity to testify against border agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean was involved in a second smuggling incident.

Rohrabacher’s spokeswoman, Tara Setmayer, told WND the Justice Department “reminded us not to disclose any documents that might compromise an on-going investigation.

But Setmayer said Rohrabacher’s office did not have any information about current DEA or Department of Homeland Security investigations.

She said the purpose of a press conference scheduled for this afternoon “is to get to the bottom of what prosecutor U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton knew about (drug smuggler Osbaldo) Aldrete-Davila and to let the public know that we have seen government investigative reports that document a second October 2005 drug incident that was not released to the jury.”

Asked whether she thought the Justice Department’s phone call was an attempt to protect Sutton, Setmayer said: “I’m not willing to make that statement at this time.”

She said Rohrabacher will call for hearings today.

“We need to get to the bottom of this,” Setmayer said. “We need congressional hearings so we can get all the facts before the American people.

As WND reported, Rohrabacher is calling for a new trial, charging the new documents show Sutton “knowingly presented a false picture of the drug smuggler in order to justify his ruthless prosecution of Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean.”

Rohrabacher’s press conference is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Eastern time in the House TV Gallery, H-321, in Washington.

Why are Mexican officials more concerned about prosecuting Americans (i.e. the Ramos-Compean prosecution) than preventing their citizens from crossing over the border into the United States? This is particularly curious considering Mexico’s own stance on lawbreakers illegally entering their country–admirably strict. If only the Bush administration were as diligent as Mexico concerning illegal immigration.

But alas, we have a broken immigration and enforcement system and an impotent presidency that really should transfer illegal alien and border policing from the federal level to the local level. Considering California is eating millions of dollars worth of state money to house criminal aliens in our state and city prisons with no federal payback funds planned in order to reimburse the cost to accommodate those illegals, it’s an outrage that this state cannot deal with the out-of-control illegal immigration problem ourselves while refraining from demonizing border agents doing the jobs they were hired to perform (I’m looking at you Texas.)

Apparently Mexico has a nice tight hold on the ear of U.S. Prosecutor extreme, Johnny Sutton, particularly in the Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean case, but evidently in other cases involving American law enforcement officials as well. It’s obvious Sutton is an agent of Bush, but is he also an agent of the Mexican government?

The Mexican Consulate played a previously undisclosed role in the events leading to U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton’s high-profile prosecution of Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who are serving 11 and 12 year sentences for their role in the shooting of a drug smuggler, according to documents obtained by WND.

And Mexican consular officials also demanded the prosecution of Texas Sheriff’s Deputy Guillermo “Gilmer” Hernandez, who subsequently was brought to trial by Sutton, the documents reveal.

Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas – among a number of congressman who have fiercely opposed the prosecution of Ramos and Compean – told WND he has “long suspected that Mexican government officials ordered the prosecution of our law enforcement agents.”

“Mexico wants to intimidate our law enforcement into leaving our border unprotected, and we now have confirmation of it in writing,” Culberson said.

Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, was equally outraged.

“The Mexican government should do more to keep illegals from Mexico from crossing into the United States, especially drug dealers, rather than be concerned about our border agents,” he told WND. “The U.S. Justice Department should not be working for the Mexican government.”

The White House and Sutton’s office in El Paso, Texas, did not respond to calls from WND asking for comment.

Hernandez’s attorney Jimmy Parks of San Antonio, Texas, told WND the documents “prove that it is wrong for my client to be in jail.”

“The prosecution of my client sends a wrong message to criminal illegal immigrants who are being tempted to cross our borders with impunity,” he said.

Mexico intervenes

WND has obtained a copy of a letter written April 18, 2005, by Mexican Consul Jorge Ernesto Espejel Montes in Eagle Pass, Texas, demanding Hernandez be prosecuted for injuring a Mexican national, Marciela Rodriguez Garcia.

The first two paragraphs of the letter set out the facts of the case as understood by the Mexican consul. The letter is reproduced here as written:

I am addressing to you, regarding the case of the Mexican national, Ms. MARICELA RODRIGUEZ GARCIA (DOB 4-11-1979), who based on the information obtained by this Consulate, received a gunshot wound by an agent of the Sheriff Department of Edward County, that caused injuries in her face. As far aw we know, last April 15, 2005, the Mexican national was transported in first insistence to Val Verde Hospital in Del Rio, Tx, and then to San Antonio, Tx., where she was attended at the University Hospital. Today, Mr. Gabriel Salas a member of the staff of this office had the opportunity of interviewed Ms. RODRIGUEZ who confirms the facts of the incident.

The final two paragraphs contain the demands of the Mexican consul:

Based on the Consular Convention between Mexico and the United States and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, the Consulate of Mexico is entitled to represent, protect and defend the rights of Mexican nationals in this country. Therefore, I would like to point out, that is the care of my Country that this kind of incidents against our nationals, do not remain unpunished. According to the information provided above, I would appreciate your kind assistance, so this Consulate can be informed of the current investigation, and your support, so you present and file a complaint with the necessaries arraignments.

WND has learned the Mexican consul addressed separate copies of the letter to the following parties:

WND also has learned that on April 29, 2005, Sheriff Lettsinger in Edwards County advised that the Texas Rangers met with the district attorney in Del Rio and was told the state of Texas had been removed from the Hernandez case because the FBI and the federal government were taking over.

The Mexican national Rodriguez was in a Chevrolet Suburban van full of illegals that attempted to run over Hernandez after he had stopped the vehicle for running a stop sign April 14, 2005, in Rocksprings, Texas. Firing his weapon at the rear tires, a bullet fragment hit Rodriguez in the mouth, cutting her lip and breaking two teeth.

In the case of agents Ramos and Compean, WND has obtained notes made by a congressional staff member who attended the Sept. 26, 2006, meeting with three investigators from the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General’s office.

The staff member’s notes indicate the Inspector General’s office briefed the congressmen that the Mexican consul had also intervened in the Ramos and Compean case.

According to the notes obtained by WND, the congressmen were told:

Several weeks later (after the February 17, 2005 event near Fabens, Texas), the Mexican Consulate contacted the U.S. Consulate in Mexico saying that they have a person who claims to have been shot by a Border Patrol agent. On March 4, 2005, the U.S. Consulate contacted the U.S. attorney.

DHS investigative reports filed by Special Agent Christopher Sanchez document that March 4, 2005, is the date on which DHS initiated the Ramos-Compean investigation.

WND can find no evidence the Border Patrol, DHS, or U.S. Attorney Sutton had started any investigation of Ramos or Compean concerning the events of Feb. 17, 2005, prior to March 4, 2005.

‘Dictating’ policy

“The Mexican government should not be dictating United States border policy,” Poe told WND after learning of the Mexican consul’s involvement in both cases.

Culberson agreed.

“We have it in writing,” he told WND, “a letter from the Mexican Consulate in the case of the deputy sheriff from Edwards County and verbal confirmation of the Mexican Consulate’s complaint in the case of Border Patrol agents Ramos and Compean.”

Culberson told WND it is “outrageous and unacceptable that our government is prosecuting U.S. law enforcement officials at the request of the Mexican government.”

The congressman said the revelations suggest national security may be at risk:

“U.S. national security interests in the war on terror must determine how we protect our border, not the opinions of the Mexican government,” he said.

Culberson called for a congressional investigation, telling WND, “We’ve now got to find out how many other Mexican government complaints have led to the prosecutions of our law enforcement officers on the border, and this intimidation must stop.”

Previous accounts in question

Sutton’s claim he learned about the identity of the drug smuggler in the Ramos-Compean case, Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila, through consular contacts originating in Mexico apparently contradicts his explanation in an exclusive interview with WND Jan. 19, Sutton said his office learned the identity of Aldrete-Davila from a lawyer in Mexico representing the drug smuggler.

WND: So, Aldrete-Davila ran away, and as you say, at the time you didn’t have any basis to know who he was and there were no fingerprints. But yet, you found the guy. If you found the guy to give him immunity, why couldn’t you have found the guy to punish him? SUTTON: The way we found him is that he came forward and was in Mexico with a lawyer. So, the only way to get him to testify was to give him immunity from being prosecuted. He wasn’t going to agree to come to the United States, he wasn’t going to agree to talk, unless he had some kind of immunity from being prosecuted for that load. So, that puts the prosecutor in the terrible choice of everyone goes free, we got no case against the dope dealer, we cannot make a case against the dope dealer because there’s no evidence, thanks to agents and other factors.

Sutton’s account also appears to contradict the March 14, 2005, memo from Special Agent Christopher Sanchez which claimed the government learned Aldrete-Davila’s identity from Border Patrol Agent Rene Sanchez in Willcox, Ariz.

As WND reported, Christopher Sanchez’s memo had claimed Rene Sanchez and Aldrete-Davila grew up together in Mexico. Rene Sanchez, the memo said, learned Aldrete-Davila was the drug smuggler involved in the incident with agents Ramos and Compean after his mother-in-law had a phone call with Aldrete-Davila’s mother in Mexico.

The memo also indicates the shooting was reported to the Mexican Consulate.

Rene Sanchez said that his mother-in-law Gregoria Toquinto went to Mexico to help her friend Marcadia take her son Osbaldo to the Mexican Consulate to report the shooting incident. However, Osbaldo declined to go. Marcadia advised Toquinto that Osbaldo did not want to report the incident, because he had actually been transporting a load of marijuana and was afraid the Mexican and/or U.S. authorities would put him in jail.

Redman was one of three DHS investigators who attended the Sept. 26, 2006, meeting with the four Texas Republican congressman. The other two investigators were identified to WND as Tamara Faulkner and James Taylor.

As WND reported, DHS Inspector General Richard L. Skinner admitted under oath Feb. 6 that Redman and the other investigators had misled the Texas congressmen. Skinner was responding to questioning by Culberson before the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee.

Skinner admitted, contrary to previous claims, DHS did not have investigative reports that would prove Ramos and Compean were rogue Border Patrol agents who told investigators they were “out to shoot some Mexicans” the day of the incident with Aldrete-Davila.

Culberson since has called for the resignation of the investigators.

Ramos-Compean trial

The Mexican consul’s role in revealing the identity of Aldrete-Davila also conflicts with prosecutor Debra Kanof’s opening statement to the jury in the Ramos-Compean trial.

According to a copy of the statement obtained by WND, Kanof explained the following to the jury Feb. 21, 2006:

Rene Sanchez is stationed in Willcox, Arizona. He’s actually from El Paso. And sometime in the last couple of days of February he got a phone call from his mother-in-law. And his mother-in-law lives in Mexico, in a little town on the outskirts of Juarez. And she told him that she had been talking to a friend of hers, a girlfriend of hers, and that that girlfriend had told her that her son, the girlfriend’s son, had been shot in back by a Border Patrol agent outside of El Paso, Texas, somewhere near San Elizario.

From there, Kanof explained how Rene Sanchez investigated.

So Rene Sanchez investigated. He made some phone calls to people he knew in El Paso and asked if there was a shooting. First he needed to find out, however, when that occurred and approximately where it occurred. So he immediately reported it to his supervisor in Willcox, Arizona, who told him to get more information, which he did by calling his mother-in-law. And he instructed his mother-in-law to take a cell phone – his mother-in-law actually lives in El Paso – to take a cell phone to Mexico, give that cell phone to the individual who was shot, and have them call me, so I can get some facts. And that, he did.

The individual who shot is an individual by the name of Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila. And Rene Sanchez spoke with him on the phone, and he gave him information about what occurred that day.

Kanof said nothing to the jury suggesting the information about Aldrete-Davila actually came from the Mexican consul, who contacted the American Consulate in Mexico, who in turn contacted DHS and prosecutor Sutton’s office.

While Ramos and Compean are in federal prison, Aldrete-Davila has found an American lawyer and plans to sue the Border Patrol for $5 million for allegedly violating his civil rights.

The following story, commencing this past October of 2006 in the city of Long Beach, California (about 30 miles south of where I live in Los Angeles), with a brutal, racially motivated beating and culminating with the severe travesty of justice that is the sentencing doled out to the perpetrators, is nothing short of shocking for a hate crime of this severity.

Last October 31, three black young women were viciously assaulted by nine trick-or-treating white teenage boys and girls. Prior to the ferocious onslaught, the nine assailants ridiculed the three black teenaged victims by hurling racial epithets, pumpkins, and various fruits at their prey. One white teen even was heard to yell, “I hate blacks!” After the aggressors could find no other vegetables to chuck at the targets, they then proceeded to beat the three black girls into another state of mind. The antagonists used their fists, their feet, and their skateboards during the attack, all while continuing their barrage of racist slurs and aspersions at their black female victims. One girl, with dozens of broken facial bones, nearly lost an eye in the attack. Now she must remain in an upright position for three months, not even allowed to recline in order to sleep at night.

While the trial ended in guilty verdicts for all nine villains, the sentences handed out by Judge Gibson Lee stupefied the victims, their families, the community and the cities of Long Beach and Los Angeles–simple probation. The first conviction constituted a gross injustice as the young boy was handed a laughable sentence of 60 days, house arrest. For the remaining eight pugilists, much of the same–probationary house arrest. To call this an outrage is to put too light a word to it. This is an atrocity.

In the politically correct age in which we live, one might be stunned into wondered astonishment as to how such a travesty as this could come to pass–three young black women nearly beat to death by nine savage white teens.

How? Well, it did and it didn’t. Read the above story again, only this time, replace nine white teens with nine black teens, and three black girls with three white girls. Do you have more clarity now? Do you know why the judge gave such lenient sentences to the offenders? If you do, explain it to me because I still do not understand.

Halloween beating victims, left to right, Lura Schneider, Michelle Smith and Loren Hyman speak to media outside a Long Beach, Calif., courthouse Wednesday Jan. 31, 2007. The three young women were in court Wednesday to give ‘victim impact statements’ to the judge who last week convicted their attackers. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) ,

LONG BEACH – Four teens were sentenced to probation and house arrest for 60 days for their roles in the Halloween beatings of three young white women attacked by a mob of black youths in Bixby Knolls on Halloween.

An 18-year-old male, his twin sister, 14-year-old sister, and 16-year-old friend have been in custody since their arrest after the beating.

They faced sentences ranging from probation to time in the California Youth Authority, although most involved in juvenile law agree the disposition will be geared more toward rehabilitation than punishment.

Doug Otto, attorney for the three victims, said he disagreed with Judge Gibson Lee’s verdict.

“The judge said he felt bound by case law and statutes to impose the least restrictive sentence,” Otto said after coming out of the courthouse. Otto said Laura, the woman who said she was knocked unconscious by the boy, was particularly upset by the sentencing.

All nine defendants, eight girls and one boy ages 13 to 18, were convicted of felony assault last week. A girl, 12, was acquitted.

Lee had scheduled the nine convicted teens’ sentencing, or disposition as it is called in juvenile court, over three days, with four Friday, another four on Tuesday and the final youth on Wednesday.

A hate-crime allegation was found to be true in eight of the cases, and an allegation that gross bodily injury was personally inflicted by the accused was found to be true for six of the convicted teens.

In the attack, a group of 20 to 40 black youngsters surrounded and beat the women to the ground as trick-or-treaters gathered in a Bixby Knolls neighborhood.

The hate-crime allegations stemmed from witness reports that several in the group yelled racial slurs during the assault, which occurred at about 9 p.m. Halloween in the 3800 block of Linden Avenue.

The youngest minor, a 12-year-old girl, was acquitted of the charge.

The Press-Telegram has chosen not to identify by name the victims, accused minors or witnesses in the case out of concern for their safety.

Cherrale, the mother of three teens convicted in the Bixby Knolls beating, smiles as she leaves the Long Beach Courthouse on Friday. The Press-Telegram has withheld the names of the convicted teens and their family members because the case has been heard in juvenile court. (Jeff Gritchen / Press-Telegram)

LONG BEACH – Four black female minors were sentenced to house arrest, probation and community service on Monday in the beatings of three white women on Halloween.One female defendant, a Cal State Long Beach student and the last of 10 tried in the case, will be sentenced today. Four others received similar sentences Jan. 26, while one, a 12-year-old girl, was acquitted.

A representative of several of the defendants’ families said they will comment after the final sentence is handed down by Long Beach Superior Court Judge Gibson Lee.

District Attorney Andrea Bouas argued for stronger penalties in three of the four sentences on Monday.

The four were convicted Jan. 26 of felony assault on the three victims. A hate-crime enhancement was found true on all four sentenced Monday.

However, Lee handed out the same sentences he had on Friday to four other teens: probation, 60 days of house arrest, 250 hours of community service and classes on anger management and racial tolerance.

Before Lee handed down his sentences to a 13-year-old, two 14-year-olds and a 17-year-old, Bouas recommended that three of the defendants be sentenced to time in California Youth Authority camps.

Bouas said about two defendants, a 17-year-old and her younger sister, that the older had a history of “acting out” and the other may have gang affiliations and a propensity for violence.

“Why would she risk her gift?” Bouas asked. “Maybe she didn’t value what she has. Sometimes when you have success you don’t recognize the value. Maybe this is the best thing that could have happened to her.”

Bouas also noted the older sister had been struggling academically with a 1.92 grade point average, not including athletics.

“The last chance for her is camp, to get her on track,” Bouas said. “She needs intervention.”

The deputy district attorney also asked the 17-year-old be barred from receiving a driver’s license until she is 21, noting a history of citations for driving without a license, including on the night of the assault.

Bouas said the younger sister showed a “frightening propensity for violence.” Bouas said even when a Good Samaritan intervened, it was the younger sister who continued to kick and seemed prepared to attack the physically imposing Good Samaritan.

Bouas also talked about a MySpace Web page that showed the girl and her 7-year-old brother flashing what she said were gang signs.

Attorney Marc Rothenberg quickly contested the assertion that the hand signals were gang-related, insisting it was merely a “thumbs up.”

“I hope I don’t get shot for giving someone a thumbs up,” Rothenberg said, eliciting laughter from the court audience.

Bouas said the younger sister “has a gift but flirts with danger” and worried the younger brother would be “contaminated” by his older sibling.

Lee, addressing gang affiliations, warned the teens: “A word to the wise. Gang activity while on probation is a straight ticket to CYA.”

Much of the information Bouas related was disallowed from the court case, but was permissible during sentencing.

Lee ruled that the court lacked power to impose the license restriction but said that the Department of Motor Vehicles would be advised.

Like the four teens sentenced Friday – an 18-year-old male, his twin sister, 16-year-old younger sister and his 16-year-old girlfriend – the defendants Monday were ordered to pay restitution.

The Press-Telegram does not identify the victims and their families out of concern for their safety and has withheld the names of the convicted teens because the case has been heard in juvenile court.

The nine defendants were convicted Jan. 26 of felony assault on the three victims, who were taunted with racial slurs and pelted with fruit and pumpkins before being beaten to the ground by a mob of youths trick-or-treating on the 3800 block of Linden Avenue.

The 18-year-old twins and their 16-year-old friend sentenced Friday were also found guilty of the special circumstances of hate crime and the personal infliction of gross bodily injury.

While on probation, the teens cannot leave their homes between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. During house arrest, they cannot leave for anything other than school, not even track practice. All four are competitive athletes.

They cannot contact the victims or associate with known gang members and are barred from socializing with their fellow convicted friends – although Lee noted the teens who are related obviously will have contact.

Probation can be until a minor is 21, authorities said, although it rarely lasts that long if the youths abide by the court’s restrictions and stay out of trouble.

After Lee handed down his rulings, parents of the defendants quietly gathered in a hallway outside the courtroom and signed papers to secure the release of their children. One hopeful adult had two paper lunch sacks with the names of two of the girls scribbled on the sides.

While a contingent of media waited for the families of the defendants at the front of the courthouse, the families left via a side door.